Ellen Waterston

WILLA Award, Obsidian Prize for Poetry

Ellen Waterston is poet, author and literary arts advocate. Vía Láctea is Waterston’s most recent title, is a verse novel based on walking the Camino de Santiago in 2012; it will be premiered as an opera in June 2016. Her poetry awards include the WILLA and the Obsidian Prize for Poetry. Other titles include Where the Crooked River Rises, a collection of Waterston’s award-winning essays, and a memoir, Then There Was No Mountain, rated one of the top ten books of 2003 by the Oregonian. After founding The Nature of Words, a non-profit for the literary arts, she passed the baton to focus on the Writing Ranch, which offers writing workshops and retreats. Waterston is at work on a second memoir and on High Road, which examines land use issues in the high desert.